Cable operators have widely deployed high-speed data services on cable television systems. These data services allow subscriber-side devices, such as personal computers, to communicate over an ordinary cable TV network Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) cable plant. A Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) connects the cable TV network to a data network, such as an Internet Protocol (IP)/MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is one of the cable standards used for transferring data over the cable TV network.
Some cable networks include several CMTSs each being associated with a corresponding fiber node and a corresponding plurality of downstream cable modems. These cable networks can include a Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (L2VPN) service that enables cable modems attached to different fiber nodes and CMTSs to operate in a same private network. To facilitate the L2VPN over DOCSIS service between the cable modems of different CMTSs/nodes, pseudowires are established between the respective CMTSs for exchanging traffic between devices behind the cable modems. These pseudowires are established according to configuration files stored on the cable modems. As described in the Business Services over DOCSIS (BSoD) L2VPN specification, particular services can be provided on the VPN using these pseudowires.
When one of the cable modems is moved to a different fiber node via a procedure referred to as a “fiber node split” (often performed for load splitting purposes), the two cable modems of the same VPN can lose communicativity with each other, resulting in a service outage. One partial solution is to update the configuration file of the remote “stationary” cable modem in conjunction with performing the fiber node split. However, updating this configuration file can be operationally difficult for service providers, which can lead to the service providers simply avoiding the fiber node split and suffering the associated performance issues. The disclosure that follows solves this and other problems.